Nintendo and Epic hacked

Two further games companies have become embroiled in the hacking epidemic.

On Friday Gears of War develop Epic admitted that it was forced to deactivate its web sites and forums for a limited amount of time following an illegitimate hack.

"Our Epic Games web sites and forums were recently hacked. After some downtime, they're back up and running now," Epic founder Tim Sweeney stated.

"The hackers may have obtained the email addresses and encrypted passwords of forum users. Plaintext passwords weren't revealed, but it's possible that those passwords could be obtained by a brute-force attack on the encrypted passwords.

"We're sorry for the inconvenience, and appreciate everyone's patience as we wrestle our servers back under control."

Then over the weekend Nintendo discovered what it is calling "a possible phishing threat". As a consequence it then shut down the European Nintendo website and its Club Nintendo portal.

"We have learnt of a possible phishing threat to users of the European Nintendo website which we are currently investigating," a statement from the platform holder reads.

"The protection of our customers is our utmost priority and so we have taken the precaution of immediately shutting down some parts of this website until further notice. We would like to reassure you that we do not hold our customer's bank, credit card or address details on the European Nintendo website and so this data is not at risk.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. Please do get in touch with your local Nintendo Customer Services if you have any further concerns."

This whole saga began with the hacking of Sony's PlayStation Network in the light of its legal action against famed software breaker George Hotz.

In the weeks that followed a number of Sony sites have been taken down by attacks. But Sony is far from the only victim – Square Enix and Codemasters have also succumbed, and even the likes of Citibank and the NHS have been targeted.

And over the weekend hacker group LulzSec warned publisher Bethesda and players of its shooter Brink that some sort of attack on that title is imminent.

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